


Lyre-flower

by ccaleb_widogast



Series: Bird of Paradise [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Songfic, Sort Of, family bonding time, via a fight and near-death experiences
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-06
Updated: 2018-03-06
Packaged: 2019-03-27 17:56:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13886079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ccaleb_widogast/pseuds/ccaleb_widogast
Summary: "How many times had he bled for them, at this point? It pulsed up through the wound just below his ribs, an angry, torn up stab wound. What a graceless weapon. Only for reducing flesh to ribbons. Maybe effective, but absolutely graceless."Part one in a series of character study one-shots centered around Mollymauk Tealeaf.





	Lyre-flower

**Author's Note:**

> I am practicing and studying Mollymauk's character as the show progresses and have began writing a series of one-shots that focus on him and are exclusively in his point of view. Each one-shot is inspired by a single verse in a song that I find very, very fitting of Mollymauk. It's called "Family," by Mother Mother. I highly recommend you look it up!
> 
> The one-shots have no specific place within the timeline and are likely to become canon-divergent as the show progresses. In general, assume that the party is at least beyond Zadash.
> 
> Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy part one of Flower Studies.
> 
> (Lyre-flower is just another word for bleeding heart, by the way. The rest, I hope, is self explanatory. The meaning of the flower is pretty literal.)

_They got my blood up in their veins_   
_I get a cut, they feel my pain_   
_They got my heart, they got my soul_   
_They know the stuff nobody knows_

How many times had he bled for them, at this point? It pulsed up through the wound just below his ribs, an angry, torn up stab wound. What a graceless weapon. Only for reducing flesh to ribbons. Maybe effective, but absolutely graceless.

Mollymauk grimaced and found himself unable to get back up. There was still fighting all around him… right in front of him. Like a shadow of death, the undead thing before him - the thing they had come here tracking in the first place - lifted that jagged blade for another slash. What a way to go, thought Molly. Fighting for something he couldn’t even remember.

The night lit up bright around him and the undead entity, forcing Mollymauk to squint. Three burning streaks of fire slammed into the being above him in rapid succession. It appeared to almost absorb the flames, but was stopped mid-swing. And then its chest glowed like embers, and burst into flame.

With an inhuman screech, it stumbled backward, dropping its blade and scrabbling at its chest as if to remove the arcane fire. And then it crumbled, burning swiftly into ash just feet away from where Molly lay.

He grunted. His vision blurred as he tried to sit up again, but this time the searing pain in his abdomen prevented that, and he contented himself to just stare up at the night sky. Quite beautiful, really. The stars were out, peering down through the branches of the sparse forest.

He became faintly aware that the rest of the fighting had stopped, and that he could hear his name being called by different voices. He looked blearily in the direction of the comotion. Jester dropped down next to him first. She wasn’t smiling now. She didn’t even have the concentrating pout she took up when fighting. Her brow was furrowed in a most un-Jester-like way.

“That was very stupid of you,” she scolded. She was obviously trying to maintain her composure, but her eyes kept flickering worriedly down to Mollymauk’s stomach. “Running in like that to take him all on your own. I mean, I know you have that _thing_ you do with your swords and stuff, but really?” She scoffed, and gingerly placed her hands around the ragged wound. They glowed a soft blue white in time with her eyes and the pendant Molly knew lay hidden within the folds of her dress.

He inhaled the first deep breath he’d been able to take since getting stabbed, and breathed out a weak, “Thanks,” to Jester. His vision was clearing as the pain eased and the blood stopped pumping out of him, but he was dizzy and tired. Too much blood loss. He was all too familiar with that. Around him, Nott stood behind Jester, hovering in that way she did when she sort of wanted to help, but didn’t know how. Beau was behind her, arms crossed, trying to look cool and unphased (she was not, in fact, cool and unphased. Mollymauk could see through that facade from the first night they fought together). Fjord was casting his gaze between Molly and the surrounding forest, walking a slow perimeter and keeping watch. And Caleb - Mollymauk had to crane his neck back to see him - was folding up his coat that he must have just taken off. A moment later, the man was lifting Molly’s head and sliding the coat under, to act as a pillow.

That really was much nicer, actually. Molly took another deep breath and allowed himself to lay there for a minute. Everybody was showing varying levels of concerned that he still wasn’t quite used to. He was the one who covered for them, anyway. It was just part of who he was.

“You know, we have to look out for you too,” Jester continued. She was nervously peeling the torn and bloodsoaked tunic away from the mostly healed wound. “If you just go _running into danger_ like that just because one of us gets hit a little too hard-” she looked pointedly at Caleb at this, who only shrugged, “-then it’ll be a lot worse than a stinky little _stab wound._ ” She stood and brushed off the front of her clothes, giving Mollymauk the stink eye.

Mollymauk didn’t sit up just yet, still experiencing quite a bit of dizziness. “What can I say?” he said casually, carefully feeling around the wound to test how healed it was - not entirely, but enough that he could get back to their cart, with some assistance. He looked up at Caleb and grinned. “I’m a sucker for damsels in distress.”

He made to sit up at the perfect moment, because Caleb was muttering something that didn’t sound very kind in Zemnian, and had promptly ripped his coat back from where it had served as a temporary pillow.

“As long as we’ve been traveling together, you know that we can work together more cohesively than that,” called Fjord from his perimeter watch. “And, believe it or not, Molly, I think some of us care about you in return for how you care for us.”

Jester helped Mollymauk to his feet, and he leaned against her while the forest stopped spinning so drastically. “Really, a near-death heart-to-heart, now?” he moaned. “Let it wait at least until the world has stopped spinning, please.”

Beau came up along his other side, and she and Jester began helping him back to the cart. “You’re an idiot,” muttered Beau. “And Fjord’s kinda right.” Molly chose to ignore her, knowing that had to have been hard to her to say.

Well, perhaps he bled for them a little too much, he thought. And yet, as the two girls practically carried him back to their cart on the edge of the woods, the rest of the party trailing behind, Molly thought he would bleed just a little bit more if it meant only he had to be the one hurting.

But, there was still some comfort in knowing that they would bleed for him.


End file.
